Real estate:

Surging area home prices dip as housing supply expands

A house is shown for sale Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, in Las Vegas.

While Southern Nevada home prices pulled back in February, the median sale price for an existing home was still up nearly 8 percent year-over-year.

That’s according to a new monthly report released this morning by the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.

For February, the median going rate for an existing home in the Las Vegas area — as recorded through the association’s multiple listing service — was $296,200.

That’s down from an even $300,000 in January, but up 7.7 percent from the February 2018 mark of $275,000.

Existing home prices have been hovering around the $300,000 level for several months after reaching the mark for the first time in more than a decade last September.

“Our home prices have been going up faster over the past year than almost anywhere else in the country, but they’ve been slowing down lately,” said Janet Carpenter, the 2019 president of the association. “This is consistent with what’s happening nationally. We’re also following national trends with our increasing housing supply and the decreasing number of homes being sold here.”

The median price of local condos and townhomes sold last month came in at $165,000. That was up 10 percent from February 2018.

While Carpenter was encouraged to see mortgage interest rates remain at historically low levels, she said headwinds in the local housing market include home prices that have been rising faster than average incomes in recent years.

As a result, she said, some sellers have been lowering their listing prices.

In fact, the February GLVAR report showed more than 7,000 homes listed without any type of offer. That’s up more than 95 percent from early 2018.

“Home sales and prices usually pick up in the spring and summer,” Carpenter said. “There are signs that we may see a slower spring selling season than we have during the past few years.”

At the current sales pace, Carpenter said Southern Nevada now has less than a four-month supply of homes available on the market. Anything under a five-month supply is generally thought of as a seller’s market.

Generally, according to GLVAR statistics, area home prices had been rising for several years before topping out late last year.

Founded in 1947, the GLVAR serves more than 14,000 Southern Nevada agents.

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